Policy research in education is a relatively new discipline which deals with the analysis of public policies governing education. The professional literature provides both a conceptual and methodological basis for defining what constitutes a public policy and the means to carry out different types of analysis. Using such a framework, this study analyzes the policy of the Government of Quebec with respect to the education of exceptional children. More specifically, the study focuses on the policy goals and legislative action of the Government. / Three separate research questions are each addressed by a systematic analytical framework using a form of qualitative content analysis. The methodology consists first of summarizing all policy data in a computerized database and then scrutinizing these summary statements to search for and analyze emergent themes and the content of policy objectives and standing decisions. The relation between these elements is then determined on the basis of specified decision rules. This analysis has also been subjected to an inquiry audit to test for the dependability and trustworthiness of the results. / The analysis reveals three emergent policy themes, over eighty specific objectives and almost 100 standing decisions, which are found in statutes, regulations, ententes and administrative documents. Various incongruencies between the goals and the legislative action are identified and discussed; implications for further research are presented, with reference to the literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61245 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Smith, William J., 1947- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000916512, proquestno: AAIMM75851, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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